In a Word on the beat article published in the Sept. 26 edition of the Meridian Source, I mentioned warrants for arrest.
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That article spoke of authority in what is a warrantless arrest. This is typically an arrest at the time of, or shortly after, someone has committed a crime.
Generally, the investigator of an incident will locate and arrest the accused person as soon as possible once they have formed reasonable and probable grounds to make an arrest.
An arrest warrant provides authority to any peace officer to arrest a person with the warrant itself being the reasonable and probable grounds. An arresting officer in this case is not required to know all the details of the offense the accused is alleged to have committed, they merely need to know a warrant for arrest exists.
For an officer to obtain a warrant, they must provide justification to a justice or judge that an offense, or offenses, have been committed and the identity of the accused is known.
I’ll remind readers there are many complicating factors that come into law enforcement, but for writing these articles, I will keep things as plain and straightforward as I can.
Once enough evidence has been gathered to apply for a warrant, an Information is sworn/affirmed, which is the document that formally charges a person.
If you see a person’s photo published as the police are trying to locate an accused individual, this means an Information has been laid, which now allows police to release the identity of an accused adult.
Once a warrant is granted, its existence is then recorded on the Canadian Police Information Centre database (CPIC).
This is a database that only Canadian police officers and other authorized personnel have access to.
If you are driving and pulled over by a police officer, you are likely to be queried on CPIC to see if you have any outstanding arrest warrants. This database also has other uses but for today, just know arrest warrants are added to it.
If a person has a warrant for arrest, before it is executed (which means the person is arrested) the warrant is confirmed with the originating agency. If Edmonton Police have an arrest warrant on CPIC and the individual is queried by an officer here in Lloydminster, the accused can be arrested once Edmonton Police confirm the warrant.
Another piece of an arrest warrant is whether or not it is endorsed. An endorsed warrant means a judge or justice that authorized it also authorized the arresting police officer to then release the accused on a court compelling document.
An unendorsed warrant means the officer must bring the accused before a judge or justice to then speak to possible release.
A court may also issue an arrest warrant and in some very serious cases, it will be Canada wide as opposed to only within a specific province. However, any provincially issued warrants can be extended to other provinces.
– Staff Sgt. Jerry Nutbown, is the NCO in charge of the Lloydminster RCMP detachment’s General Investigation Section. Stay tuned for future articles from the Lloydminster RCMP.
This column was originally published in the Nov. 14, 2024, edition of the Meridian Source.
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